The project's major objective is to effect a comparison of the processing of mentally ill and mentally retarded offenders and non-offenders into the Nebraska mental health system through a description of the actual commitment process. The actual processing system will be compared to the formal statutory system to determine whether and to what extent the actual system differs from the formal statutory policies, commitment procedures, and commitment standards. The character of the differences will be examined, and possible explanations will be suggested. The study will also collect basic epidemological data on mentally ill and mentally retarded offenders and non-offenders as well as data on the characteristics of the proposed patients, the decision makers, and the decision point in the commitment process. The primary method of investigation will be interviews with the participants in the commitment process. The interviews will focus on determining the decision making criteria and procedures actually used, the provision of statutory protections to the proposed patients, and the disposition of these persons, Available court and administrative records for a two-year period will also be examined. The area studied will be five counties in eastern Nebraska. The collection of basic statistical data will be initiated early in the summer of 1975, and the final report of the project's findings will be completed by May 31, 1976.